Triangle Mama Bloggers

Local Music

May 08, 2009

My Home State

Unlike many people living in the Triangle, I didn’t get transferred here from another state or end up here by accident on my way someplace else. I chose this place for my home.

I’m a nearly-born and totally-raised North Carolinian – my parents were living in Pittsburgh when I was born, but I was still a baby when we moved to Greensboro, so I hardly think I qualify as a Yankee. Since then, I’ve lived in Greensboro two more times plus Hickory, Chapel Hill (twice), Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh (twice). I’m thinking I should get retirement homes in Murphy and Manteo (or maybe Asheville and Wilmington) just to feel like I’ve really covered the state.

Equally unusual is that my husband is also a native – born and raised in Winston-Salem, although he wandered the country a bit before finding me in Chapel Hill (the second time around). When we married, we agreed that North Carolina was our home – that even if we wandered some first, our family would live and grow here.

It hasn’t always been the easiest choice. We’ve both lived in other states and other countries, so we know there are fun and beautiful and interesting places to be outside the Old North State. And good jobs in public relations are tough to find here – we could make more money and have better opportunities in big cities like Chicago or New York.

But we knew we would miss the beach and the barbecue and the warm October nights – and we’d end up blowing all that extra money on plane tickets just trying to get back home.

It’s like the old television jingle used to sing, “I like calling North Carolina home.” And I expect I always will.